


Flash and Gene

by concreteflour



Series: Guess What?  Parker IS an Intern. [7]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Flash is Learning, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 05:36:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16696444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/concreteflour/pseuds/concreteflour
Summary: Flash begins to come to grips with what has happened to him recently.  He starts to grow up a little, with the help of "his friends".





	Flash and Gene

**Author's Note:**

> You will probably want to read the other stories in this arc, especially "Flash's Judgement" This is really a continuation of that. This -should- complete this arc....the one I planned on being only one story, but my muse wouldn't let me stop! 
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoy. Please leave me a comment if you can. Thank you for taking the time to read.

Flash had too much time to think about his problems. He realized with some disdain, that time was one of his problems. Going home after school, his parents didn’t interact with him, other than to call him down for dinner or wake him up before they left for work. Otherwise, they worked, often late into the night. Even when they were there together, Eugene often felt that he was more of a burden than someone they treasured. He was constantly reminded how he needed to be better, whether in sports, in class, in networking, just to get to where they wanted him to be.

With his recent experiences, real or not, he had many things to think about. He also realized he had no one to talk to. His friends would laugh at him, because they were barely capable of processing a new thought without being told what it was. “His gang.” He almost laughed. If their parents didn’t have money, they would never have been in Midtown. They would have been less than average students at a normal high school. Here at Midtown, where they made the old 4.0 a C and worked up from there, the gang was barely hanging on. Really, one of the reasons they followed Flash….no, Gene, was that he helped them understand their work.

The thing is, they made Gene feel good, he was important. At least to them. They thought he was smart, important. It was something he didn’t get anywhere else. He realized that was one of the reasons he was a bully. He felt important, superior, able to dominate others. It started at home. He knew that. Oh, his parents would buy him whatever he wanted, but more to keep him out of their hair than for any semblance of love. 

He was quieter in class this morning. Working on his notes. He had approached Parker this morning, and hopefully would be able to talk to him at lunch. Parker had always been one of his main targets, but Gene now realized that was often by Parker’s design. He quite often put himself in the place of other kids, mostly freshman, that would have gotten Flash’s special treatment. Gene still couldn’t figure that out, but it probably was a part of what made Peter better than him. Even last month, or last week, that would have made Flash laugh, but Gene had learned a lot in a very short time. He saw the revulsion in the eyes of super heroes and aliens alike. 

The problem was that Gene didn’t know how to be a better person. He didn’t have a role model, not anyone close. In evaluating all his choices, he kept coming back to Peter. Yes, he was an Intern, he was smarter, he protected others, he was respected by teachers, other students, and even super heroes.

For the first time since he had been at Midtown, Gene avoided talking to the guys that used to surround him. When his lunch period come due, he went through the lunch line alone.

Taking his tray, he walked by his former comrades and headed to the back corner, where Peter and Ned sat, with Michelle Jones just off to one side. They looked up as he approached. For the first time ever, he put his tray down with theirs.

“Peter, can I talk to you? And you Ned, even Michelle too,” Gene started.

“I guess so,” Peter answered, “you freaked me out this morning with the Gene thing. What’s up?”

“You might hear this from your Avenger friends, maybe, I don’t know. But I was recently given a couple of very interesting days to contemplate. First was the tour to SI. I apologize for all the grief I’ve given you on that for the past year. I realize you were telling the truth. Secondly, I had a really bad day, almost beyond description, and that gave me the opportunity to see who my friends really are, and I didn’t have any, even at home. Finally, I was sent on a strange trip by a Norse God, and I still haven’t been able to process it all.”

Peter stared at him, “Thor sent you on a trip?”

“No, it was the other one, Loki,” Gene answered.

“He has magic, he would be able to do lots of thing you wouldn’t be able to stop. Thor would have really transferred you to other places, Loki could do it from anywhere, and make you think you were there.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what it was. But it was so real. So real.”

Peter looked at Gene, finally understanding a little, “I have seen some of his illusions, they would make you believe whatever he wanted you to see.”

Gene laughed, “It’s almost funny if you think about it, because an illusion made me see reality.”

“You’ve lost me Flash, or… Gene,” Peter said.

“It’s simple,” continued Gene, “I have a pretty sucky life in a lot of ways. In some ways I’m blessed. But the advantages I’ve had I have not appreciated, because I keep focusing on the bad things.”

“Dude,” said Ned, “It’s not helping, still clear as mud.”

“Look, my home life sucks, okay? My parents don’t care. I don’t have any other family even close, and I realize my so-called friends are leeches. They let me play the big shot because I help them with classes, which hurts my own GPA. I have been trying to get the respect outside of the home by demanding it from others, which I know doesn’t work. But to me, fear was the same thing.”

Softly, Peter nodded. “I always thought it might be something like that.”

“Yeah, it only makes sense that you would figure it out. You really are smarter than me. That’s one of the reasons I’m here right now. Everything I think of keeps coming back around to you Parker.” Gene was shaking his head, “No, I’m not mad at you. More ---- perplexed. I know you have had terrible losses, your parents, your uncle. Your Aunt works a lot to support you. You get picked on, okay, bullied here constantly. But still, you’re the most optimistic person I’ve met. I’ve done bad things to you, but you’ve never tried to avoid it, even to the point where I know you’ve egged it on from me when I was going to bully someone else. Looking back, I can see many times when you’ve literally stepped into the line of fire to protect someone else. That’s what I want to know. With all the bad that has happened to you, with all my bad stuff to you, why are you so good to the others? Why, when you could have avoided it completely, didn’t you just turn your back? Why do you have to be like your Avenger friends?” 

“If you are asking it that way, you know the answer. I can’t let someone else get hurt when I could have helped. How could I sleep at night if I knowingly let someone else get hurt? I would have been as bad as you if I did,” Peter said quietly. “And I’m not being like my Avenger friends, I’m just trying to be a good human being. Something we should all aspire to.”

Ned sat at the table, his mouth hanging slightly open. MJ sat next to him, drawing furiously in a sketchbook.

After a moment, Gene spoke again, “I don’t want to be the person I was, but I don’t know how to be anyone else. How do you do it? How can you handle all the grief, the problems, the attitudes, and still function? Have you had any special training? Is there a class? What do I do?” The last words almost choked Gene as they came out.

Ned spoke for the first time. “There is help you can find. You can get someone to help you with dealing with issues you might have. I can get you some names of people you can talk to that could help.”

“A Shrink?” Was Gene’s question.

“No,” Ned replied, “a therapist, someone who will listen to what you have to say and help you make sense of it all.”

“Lord knows I have had a lot of stuff happen recently that I need to figure out.”

“Flash…or Gene,” MJ said, “It might also help if you thought about who you looked up to. Who are your role models?

“Well, my parents were, but I see something missing there. I don’t have that much of a family even close.”

“Aren’t you a big fan of Spider-Man?” MJ asked.

“Yes, but I can’t really base my life on being a superhero. That’s not very realistic.”

“Why not?” MJ retorted. “Spider-Man helps the average person, he gets cats down out of trees. He helps old ladies across the street. We don’t all have to stop bank robberies to be heroes!”

Ned jumped in, “Look at Tony Stark! When he was building weapons and being a playboy, his rep was really low. But now that he is leading the green revolution, there is even talk of drafting him to run for President.” Peter choked on the drink he was taking at that time. Just the idea of Tony being President. He would have to blow off meetings with himself!

Pete spoke up, “It comes down to what you want to be, and how you want to get there. Do you want a shortcut or to earn it? Do you want to sleep at night or worry about everything in your life?” Gene looked up suddenly at that, with a haunted look in his eyes. “You have a lot of advantages, Gene. Use them. Figure out what you really want to become, and what you’re willing to do to achieve your dreams? You are smart. We all know that. But have you really applied yourself? What could you accomplish if you did?”

Ned added, “You don’t have to be a hero like Iron Man or Captain America, you don’t need to save all the world. Maybe doing one small thing will make all the difference in somebody’s world.”

Gene stared at the trio of what he used to call Nerds, or losers, or worse. He realized that he suddenly valued their opinions. He realized that these three were anything but the losers he always thought.

“Tomorrow is a new day,” Peter said. “You get to choose how you want it to go, how will you interact with what is thrown your way? You might have good things, bad things, or both, but it’s how you deal with them. Your life can mean so much if you want it to, but you must make it so. To paraphrase a friend of mine, “With great opportunity comes great responsibility.” You have to decide what to do.”

The first bell for the next class rang. The four students all reached for their books.

Gene looked at all three of them in turn. “Thank you, I have more to think about now. But I think you’re right, I do have some opportunities. I will make the best of them.” And then with the first positive emotion he had shown, “If I can’t make some people proud of me, I will at least respect myself.” And he turned to go to his next class.

From a short distance away, invisible to all around him, sat a Norse God. He smiled as he saw his plan come into fruition. The human boy going to Peter was a bonus, because Peter had shown himself to be a very noble soul. Loki had only begun this trial because of the interactions between the two humans. Maybe his lot in life wasn’t just to be the God of Mischief. Although the God didn’t realize it, he gained a tiny bit more respect for himself at that moment too.


End file.
